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As randomly chosen by survey* on Mastodon, our next spotlight is on number 593 on The List, submitted by HillardHouseDan.

First of all, if you’re a metalhead and/or someone who says they don’t like Queen and therefore you have already chosen not to listen to this album, check out this playlist created by @derthomas first, and then choose your choice.

Still with us? Okay.

This album comes after and is a companion to the 1975 A Night At The Opera (i.e., the album that gifted Wayne’s World – and, therefore, us – “Bohemian Rhapsody”), with both titles taken from Marx Brothers films and having similar cover art (this one in black, the former in white). Likely most people are familiar with the album’s first single “Somebody to Love”, or perhaps with derthomas’ selection for his Queen playlist, the opening track and second single “Tie Your Mother Down”.

The standout for me though was a track I had never heard before, and comes right after “Somebody to Love”. “White Man” is written (by Brian May) from the perspective of an Indigenous person in so-called America, lamenting the atrocities enacted against their people and land by European colonizers. A glam rock precursor to Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills”, if you will. I can’t help but wonder how this song was received when released or how it is now. At any rate, the riff from it was apparently repurposed for the intro of “Fat Bottomed Girls” in their more recent (i.e., sans Freddie Mercury) tours which is, uh, interesting.

• Songlink: Queen – A Day At The Races
• Discogs: Queen – A Day At The Races

*The survey choices that initially led to this spotlight were “In”, “a day”, and “or two”, following the earlier surveys with “Take”/“on”/“me”, “Take”/“me”/“on”, and “I’ll”/”be”/”gone”. The second option was the winning selection, so the survey result was translated as picking the album in The List that contained the phrase “a day” (there was only one).

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/10/25/queen-a-day-at-the-races-1976-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1970s #glamRock #hardRock #Queen #symphonicRock